Hundreds of vehicles labelled lemons in the United States are turning up at Canadian dealerships where some unsuspecting customers are being offered defective cars, CBC News has learned.
In one instance, a Kia minivan that originally sold for $28,100 US in Florida was sold at auction to a Winnipeg dealer for $13,100 US after it was declared a lemon. It ended up on a Winnipeg car lot where it was recently found on sale for $24,980 and with no warnings about its history.
Unlike the U.S., Canada has no lemon laws despite attempts to establish them in British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario.
Eric Schrepel, who bought the 2006 Kia minivan brand new from a Florida dealership, said the battery died four times in less than 18 months and no mechanic could solve the problem.
"There was some sort of short that they just couldn't locate in the car. Kia makes a very good car. But I think this one is just literally — it was just a lemon," Schrepel told CBC News.
The manufacturer followed the letter of the law in Florida and bought back the van. It later resold it to the Winnipeg dealer.
A salesman at the Winnipeg car lot would only say the van had been designated a lemon in Florida after being asked several times. Even then he guaranteed the van would perform properly.
While the definition of lemon varies by state, it most often means that despite several trips to the dealer's service department, a vehicle continues to have a serious problem.
Once a vehicle is declared a lemon, the manufacturer has to buy it back. But there's nothing to stop the manufacturer from reselling it.
While all 50 states have lemon laws, only 19 require the title of a car declared a lemon to carry a warning. When a dealer sells a lemon out-of-state, the lemon designation is often not carried over.
A CBC News investigation found that between May 1, 2006, and Nov. 5, 2007, 852 American lemons were imported into Canada, with more than 110 of those crossing the border since the Canadian dollar reached parity.
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